Ghosttrolls: More Than Human
by polar-or-die
Summary: When Casper High shuts down and the students are moved to Arcadia Oaks, Danny Fenton meets Jim Lake. Danny grumpily tries to keep from getting attached - he's not planning on staying long - until a huge attack falls on Arcadia, and he and Jim have to team up, learning they have more in common than they thought they did.
1. When Ghosts Attack

He didn't have any regrets. Jim knew his life was going in a completely different direction now, hurtling into the unknown. It terrified him. He'd never been without his mom before, and now he was getting ready to leave, saying goodbye to both her and his best friend. It stung so much, knowing that he was leaving everything familiar behind, but as the sun began to rise in the sky, he told himself to accept it. Everything that happened leading up to this moment guided him to his future, his destiny, to him being the trollhunter, and he was going to keep everyone safe.

Still, looking into his mother's eyes, he wished that it could be done in an easier way. They were both crying, and it hurt a lot, but he also felt the love his mother had for him. He may have defeated Gunmar himself, fought Morgana, and survived detention with Senor Uhl, but saying goodbye was ten times harder. He felt like a puppet controlling his body from the outside, every emotion screaming to stop but moving forward to do it anyway.

He knew they both hated this, but she tried to put a positive spin on it, like always. "I knew this day would come," she said, going in for a hug, "I just… never knew when!" She tried to laugh it off, the sound coming out more like an exhale than anything else.

 _You didn't think it would be so soon,_ thought Jim, _and neither did I_. He looked at the horizon, holding onto his mother, gazing across the city as the sun began to rise. He'd have to get out of the light soon…

Suddenly, he heard cries from down below, several people at once screaming in disarray. Startled, his mother let go, and everyone ran to the edge of the cliff to see what was happening.

Something was attacking. Whatever it was, pillars of smoke rose from somewhere near the school, and some other sound rang out… was that cackling? It was hard to tell from so far away, but...

"That doesn't sound good," said Toby.

"Who could be attacking?" said Jim, entirely frustrated. He pulled at his hair, which he kept forgetting had gotten longer. "We beat EVERYONE! There's no one left to attack us!"

"Calm down," said Claire. "We can figure it out. But the sun's almost up. You'd better-"

"Screw the sun," said Jim, and he turned to run back into town, leaving everyone behind.

"Screw the - screw the sun?" exclaimed Claire. "What, does he think that if he hates the sun hard enough, it'll stop hurting him?" She ran down the slope after him.

Their footsteps faded as Toby, Barbara, Argh, and Blinky stood there, shocked. "Well," said Toby, looking at the others, "this doesn't seem like it's going to end well…" At the same moment, they all turned and hurried after Jim and Claire.

Jim ran towards the smoke, hiding behind buildings and staying in the shadows as best he could. Claire, who wasn't restricted by the sun, caught up with him quickly. "What are you doing?" she demanded. "You can't possibly think-"

"That this is a good idea? You're right, it isn't a good idea. But I have to make sure this isn't my fault… That I didn't miss something. If that's a troll, I-"

"Jim," Claire pressed. "Relax. We can take care of this. You don't have to fix everything. There are other people in the world who can fix problems like this… Whatever this is."

"No," said Jim. "I'm taking care of this." He started moving again, in short spurts, dodging from building to building. As he and Claire worked their way through the town, shadow after shadow, they could almost see what was causing so much panic. People were running everywhere, yelling all sorts of things. They were about to round a corner when -

Something came at them, fast and angry, and it ran right into Jim, shoving him to the ground - and into the sunlight. He yelled as he tried to fight the thing off him, writhing in pain as the sun touched his skin. Smoke rose from his face, and he closed his eyes in pain.

"GET OFF OF HIM!" screamed Claire, but the assailant knocked her away. She landed on the ground, and the air was knocked out of her lungs. She tried to get up, but she couldn't breathe right.

"This child is mine," said the bulky figure on top of Jim, in a very deep voice. "He's too unique a specimen to not take… though this screaming certainly is annoying." He stared down at Jim, who was still sizzling, and suddenly backed off, making a confused expression. "What the…" He didn't finish.

Jim took advantage of his surprise, and kicked the man in the legs, causing him to fall to the ground. Jim summoned his sword, ready to attack - and noticed that the man's hair was on fire. "Uh," said Jim, sword frozen above his shoulder, "you are aware that you're on FIRE, right?"

The assailant got to his feet and smirked. Jim gasped as he got a good look at the guy's face: the dude didn't have a nose. He was at least half a foot taller than Jim, and he seemed strapped with a ton of tech, but Jim couldn't even tell what most of it did. His grey skin fit nicely with the punk-like assortment of clothes he was wearing, complete with black combat boots. It was clear that he wasn't human. "I am Skulker," said the man, "the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter! And if I can't catch the Ghost Boy, you'll make an equally rewarding prize." He lifted his right hand and pressed a few buttons on a screen strapped to his wrist. Just as he made a move to press one last button, his focus shifted to somewhere behind Jim, and he froze.

"Master Jim!" called a voice, unmistakably Blinky's. Jim turned around and saw what Skulker had noticed.

"Blinky! Argh! MOM!" he shouted. They'd come down to help, but they were confined to the shadows, like he was, and his mom couldn't help fight. He'd left them behind when he ran down here, and he was glad they'd followed. Even if they were kind of putting his mom in danger by bringing her into the fray of things like this.

"So," said Skulker, "you brought reinforcements. Do you really think they could-" He was interrupted by the loudest roar Jim had ever heard come from Argh. The bellow rattled the windows and made everyone stop in their tracks. Blinky and Barbara covered their ears. Skulker gulped. Argh couldn't come over to where they were, but Skulker didn't seem to know that. The hulking man turned back to Jim. "It looks like you've outsmarted me, just like the Ghost Boy," he said. "You're on my list, now. I'll catch you when you least expect, like all my other prey. Just you wait." He disarmed his arm, and grimaced, fading into nothing.

"He's gone?!" yelled Toby, who had fallen behind the rest of the group and was just now getting here. He was breathing hard. "How'd he do that?"

"I don't know," said Jim. Then his eyes widened. "Claire!" He ran over to where she lay on the ground. "Are you okay?"

She opened her eyes. "Yeah," she wheezed. "I just got the wind knocked out of me. I decided it might be better to wait to get up until I could breathe again." She looked Jim in the eyes, and suddenly exclaimed in surprise. "Jim! Look at you!"

"What? What is it?" he looked at his hands, which were covered by his armor. Oh, yeah. He couldn't see his hands when he's wearing the armor. But then he realized: his right hand. It had… he counted just to make sure, but he already knew it. His right hand had five fingers, just like it used to. The pain from the sun had stopped a while ago, too. How could…?

He felt a bump from behind. Turning around, he saw it was Toby, slapping his hand on Jim's back. "Jim!" he yelled. "You're HUMAN again!"

Quickly, Jim summoned his shield, and looked at himself in the reflection: pink skin. No horns. Shorter hair. "Oh, my god," said Jim, "you're right." He realized that maybe now that he was human, he might be able to take the armor off, so he tried it. Toby had to catch the amulet to keep it from smashing on the ground.

 _Wow_ , thought Jim, _this is amazing_. He couldn't stop staring at his hands - HUMAN hands.

"JIM!" yelled his mom from somewhere behind him. _Wow_ , he thought, _there sure are a lot of people yelling my name right now_. Suddenly he was encased in a hug from his mother again, the warm Mom Smell soothing his nerves. He was shorter than her, again. It was all back to normal. Everything was okay now. Everything was good.

"How could this happen?" asked Jim's mom.

"I'm not sure," said Jim, thinking. "Merlin did say I was half troll, half human, but this is a pretty big thing to leave out…"

"There were A LOT of things that man left out about what he said he was going to do." Jim's mom looked him in the eyes. "We'll figure this out, together, just like we always do. Promise."

Then another scream rang out. "There's more coming!" yelled someone who scrambled past them. "We have to get out of here!"

Claire stood up, using Jim as support. "There's more?" she asked. "More what?"

"I'm not sure," Jim said, squinting in the direction of the destruction. "But whatever it is, we should probably stop it." Everything was NOT back to normal, he reminded himself. Not even close.

 _Wow,_ thought Jim, _I just can't catch a break, can I?_


	2. Ghosts? In My Arcadia Oaks?

Danny stood in the living room of the empty house, looking around at a whole lot of nothing. It was dark, but he could still tell there wasn't anything to look at. The forlorn look on his face clearly bugged Jazz, because she said, "Look, there's no use being mopey about it. We should get settled in, and then we can worry about ghosts and everything else." She put a hand on his shoulder, trying to meet his eyes, but he wouldn't let her. She frowned, and said sternly, "It's not our fault the school can't afford to be fixed anymore."

"My friends…" Danny started, but then he changed his mind and shrugged his sister's hand off his shoulder. "Whatever," he said, heading to the stairs. "I'm going to look at my _new room._ " He was so mad that they had to leave Amity Park suddenly like this. So many people lived in that town, regardless of the school district changeup. How many people would suffer now that he was living in Arcadia Oaks? Who cared about the school's funding or "the merging of school districts" when thousands of people's lives were at risk because he wasn't there to protect them? Couldn't they just fix the school again? He didn't want to go to Arcadia Oaks High. He wanted to be home.

He didn't get very far up the stairs before he heard a bone-shattering crash from outside. The whole house shook, and you could hear it wobble, even though there wasn't anything in it yet.

"OH, COME ON," shouted their dad from outside. "NOT THE GHOST PORTALLLL!"

"The ghost portal?" Danny and Jazz said in unison, locking eyes. They ran for the front door.

It had completely crushed the asphalt of the road, sticking up at an odd angle. Apparently Jack and Maddie Fenton, Danny and Jazz's parents, had rented a crane to carry the ghost portal to their new house. Jack had clearly insisted on giving it a try. Of course, that hadn't gone very well.

Danny hadn't known they were planning on bringing it with them. But now he realized that the reason that his parents made them move out so late at night was to avoid any traffic with their gigantic ghost portal. He'd assumed it was because they were being frantically erratic again. Jazz had driven Danny there in her own car, which meant that of course they hadn't seen their parents and the crane. Maybe, if the portal wasn't broken, things could still work out, maybe the ghosts would stay localized here.

"I can't believe Dad messed the portal up AGAIN," complained Jazz, as her mom examined the crane. "Now the road's all messed up, too."

"Hang on," said Maddie. Everyone hung on while they waited for her to decide what happened. She pointed to a component on the crane, and with a small "Humph," she stood up. "This mechanism here, it's been tampered with. There's a screw that's missing."

"HAH!" barked Jack, pointing at his daughter from inside the crane. "Take that, it WASN'T my fault!"

" _This_ time," muttered Jazz.

"BEEP BEEP BEEP," said the Ghost Portal, shutting up everyone.

"Uh," said Danny, "is it supposed to do that?" He stared at the portal, waiting for the worst to happen, and noticed some very small movement on the door. It looked like a tiny, glowing worm was wiggling its way up the portal's door, though Danny didn't know anything about glowing worms or why they'd want to be on the portal.

"No, it's not supposed to be making that sound," said Maddie, giving the portal a hard look.

Suddenly the worm-like thing shot up into the sky, growing longer and larger, never getting free of the door. That was really strange - until Danny saw how it moved, watched it split apart in the sky, heard the haunting screams. It was a swarm of ghosts. They'd just escaped through a crack in the ghost portal door.

Maddie shivered. She looked at Danny, at Jazz, and Jack. "Did you feel that?" _Feel that? Did they even see what just happened?_

"Ice cold," said Jazz, shivering. "Let's just finish the packing." They were acting like they hadn't just freed practically every ghost in the Ghost Zone. _Why weren't they more worried?_

"I feel bad about leaving the portal out here like this," said Maddie, "but we've got to, for now until we can either rent a new, working crane, or pay someone who has one." That's when it hit Danny: the ghosts were invisible. Well, invisible to the human eye, at least. They were acting like they hadn't seen it because they _truly hadn't_ seen it. Well, in that case, Danny decided that he hadn't seen it, either. He went back into the house, up to his empty room, and stared out the window. Surely the ghosts would attack any second. He sat there for what seemed like forever, waiting for a sign, and eventually fell asleep.

Danny looked at the clouds hanging in the blue sky. He knew they were coming. His parents had accidentally made sure of that. And he knew they didn't mean to release them all at once, that his parents wanted them trapped just as much as he did, but he still wished with all his heart they hadn't done it. They should've left the portal behind.

Danny kept his eye on the sky, squinting, trying to see if there was anything flying around up there. Nothing. Where did they all go? Last night, his parents had accidentally released thousands of ghosts upon the new town. His parents didn't know they were responsible, and they had leapt into action, ready for battle as they always were. Danny had been asleep, so he didn't get to fight any ghosts. Though, he kind of wished he had. Now he just felt like a helpless sleepy teenager.

But the strange thing was; after just an hour of chaotic rampaging, it had stopped. Every single angry ghost had just disappeared. Very little actual damage had fallen on the town, as the news reported, and so most people continued with their daily routines. Everyone in town was still frazzled, however. The citizens of Arcadia Oaks clearly were denying the nature of the attack, which was par for the course. Something had attacked the town around 3 am; a pack of bears? An angry mob? Was it a prank by some college students? The knowledge that it wasn't any of those things dangled in the back of their minds, Danny knew, and they were ignoring it. Eventually, though, if an attack happened again - and Danny _knew_ it would - they would have to accept it. Ghosts were real.

He shoved his hands lower into his jacket pockets as he walked to school, grumpier than ever and regretting every action that had pushed him here. The shutting down of Casper High, the move, the friends splitting up to different schools. No one would have his back now, not like Sam and Tucker did. They were the only people he could truly trust, and they were gone, off at a fancy private school. Sure, Jazz knew his secret, and protected him all the same, but she hadn't been there for him like they had. She hadn't been there for the accident, she hadn't helped him come to terms with his sudden departure from true humanity. She hadn't held him in her arms as he cried for the life that he lost, wailing as he stared at the mirror, into eyes that weren't his anymore.

Danny grimaced as he reached the school. Just another reminder that he didn't fit in. He found his way to the gym for the welcoming assembly, and sat in the bleachers as far away from everyone else as he could.

Mr. Lancer walked into the gym, stopping in front of the microphone, and spoke. "Ahem," he said forcefully, quieting the kids in the bleachers. "As you know," he continued, "Casper High School in Amity Park has been shut down, due to the district losing their funding. _Why_ the school lost its funding isn't important, because we're here now. We were very lucky to have found Arcadia Oaks High, because it had the space for us." _And it was the only public school willing to accept the kids at all, thanks to Casper's reputation_ , thought Danny.

"Another thing I should add," said Mr. Lancer, "is that I will be the new principal! Mr. Strickler's sudden absence for the second time in one school year has left the position open. Coach Lawrence was tired of standing in for him... again." There was a quiet murmur from the kids, because they knew they were supposed to laugh but it wasn't really very funny. "You all have your schedules," Mr. Lancer continued, "and if you have any problems with them, ask in the main office. If you need help finding your classrooms, either ask an available faculty member or a fellow classmate. That is all."

The gym floor filled with teenagers, the swarm trying to make their escape through the two exits, but the going was slow. Danny took the time to check his schedule again as he slowly shuffled forward with the crowd. "Mr…. uhh… hm." His first class was Spanish, with a Mr. Uhl.

"It's pronounced, 'ooh-l,'" said a voice behind him, and Danny jumped out of his skin. Behind him stood a short kid, with brown hair, a sweatervest only half tucked in, and braces. As they continued to sluggishly move forward, he said, "Hi, I'm Toby. Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you…" He smiled at Danny, braces flashing.

Danny didn't smile back. "I'm Danny-" He was going to say "Fenton," but decided against it. Who knew what this kid had heard about his family? He was probably just going to make fun of him if he knew Danny's last name.

"Uhl's a real mean guy," continued Toby. "My friend Jim has him first period, too, and the stories he tells…. Whew, I'm tellin' you." He thought for a moment, then said, "Hey! Why don't you look for Jim when you get there? He needs a study buddy who's actually taking the class, and you'll need help catching up! It's perfect!" Danny gave him a strange look, hoping it would communicate how weird he thought all this was.

Toby saw an opening in the crowd, and took it, getting swept ahead of Danny. Toby turned back before he disappeared completely and yelled, "Jim's tall, with black hair, and he wears the same blue sweater every day! You can't miss him!" And then he was gone.

When he was finally free from the mob of teenagers, Danny wandered down hallways searching for Mr. Uhl's classroom. He heard a noise from above him, and he looked at the ceiling. He didn't see anything. But the noise persisted, a strange sort of scuttling, thought Danny. Like a rat or something in the vents. He listened harder, and realized there was another, lower frequency, too. Almost like… it was almost as if someone was muttering something up there. What kind of a person could fit in those vents? What were they even doing there? Danny tried not to think about it as he hurried the rest of the way to his class.

He sat down close to the back, hoping no one would claim the seat as already taken. Class started, and the teacher introduced himself. "Good morning, class," he said in an Austrian accent. "My name is Senor Uhl. I know many of you are new here, but we are too far into the school year to restart our curriculum. You will have to catch up from your classmates. Now, onto roll call." The teacher ran down a list of names, and aside from raising his hand when his name was called, Danny stopped paying attention.

His focus shifted to the world out the window. What was going to happen out there? Were the released ghosts planning something? He couldn't help but feel that an attack was imminent. He had no idea of their motivations whatsoever, so everything was speculation at this point. But he couldn't help but worry… And what was that thing in the vents earlier? It couldn't have been a human person, but why would a ghost be hanging around up there? Something weird was going on.

"Jim Lake!" called out Senor Uhl, and Danny's attention was sucked back into the room. He'd been so preoccupied with worrying he'd forgotten that Toby had told him to look out for his friend Jim. Danny wondered what he looked like, who he was. But no one was raising their hand. There wasn't even a kid in the room wearing a blue sweater.

"Absent again," muttered Uhl. He rolled his eyes as he made a mark on the sheet of paper and finished the roll call. "Okay," said Senor Uhl, "now, we're going to pick up where we left off yesterday. I'll give you kids an extra 15 minutes at the end of class to catch each other up. We were talking about animals last class, if you'll remember. We'll review: rana is frog, leon is lion…" Danny tried to keep focused, but his mind drifted. Class was always so boring. It didn't matter what he told himself or how hard he tried to force himself to focus; his brain had a mind of its own, and it usually decided that learning in class was garbage.

He was coming up with more theories on what the ghosts were doing when he heard the distinct sound of sneakers on polished school flooring. Someone was running down the hall, and when Danny looked at Senor Uhl, he could see that the teacher already knew who it was. A fairly tall kid burst his way into the room, and he was panting his guts out. "You're late again, Jim," said Uhl, his scowl deepening.

"Sorry," said Jim in response, giving no reason for being tardy, and moved to sit down in the only free seat in the room: next to Danny. Jim leaned over and whispered, "What'd I miss?"

Danny shrugged, and then said, "I haven't been paying attention, sorry, man." Jim sighed and got his notebook out of his backpack. He began taking notes furiously about whatever Uhl was saying. "Uh," Danny whispered, "I met a guy who said he was called Toby in the-"

"Shhh! Can't you see I'm taking notes-" Jim stopped and looked up from his notebook. "Wait, I've never seen you before. Are you new?"

Danny raised his eyebrows at Jim. "Yeah, just like all the other Casper kids." Jim just stared back at Danny with a blank expression, like he didn't know what "Capser" meant. It was a weird reaction, since the whole school had spent a lot of time accommodating all the new kids, even holding pre-switch assemblies at each school to prep both groups. "You know how Casper High School in Amity Park shut down? How we're like, all going here now? I'm one of the _dozens_ of new kids, Jim."

Jim raised an eyebrow. "Uh, okay. Sorry, I guess I've been too preoccupied with my own stuff to notice the change." _Must've been pretty preoccupied_ , thought Danny, if Jim seriously had missed the several announcements. "Wait, you said Toby talked to you?" asked Jim.

"Uh, yeah, I met him after the welcome assembly," said Danny. "He said to uh, talk to you about getting caught up with the class… he suggested we work together?" Danny ended that on a very unsure note, because Jim didn't seem that interested in distractions right now. And Danny knew he counted as a distraction, as sincere as he was.

"Really? He said that?" Jim shook his head, sighing as his shoulders slumped. "If I'm being honest, I'm not the best at this class, either, and I'm also behind - but not as much as you… I'm in danger of failing, actually."

"Oh," said Danny. His hopes hadn't really been that far up, but he was still disappointed to be without any help. He knew it would be pretty much impossible to pass this class so late in the year without inside help, and Jim was his in, as far as he could see. And he'd said no.

"Jim. Lake," growled Senor Uhl. He was clearly unhappy about the two of them whispering in class. "Interrupting my lessons again? Do you have something you want to share with the glass?"

"No, sir," replied Jim, gritting his teeth. "I was just asking Danny here to leave me alone." He gave Danny a glare that told him it was time to be quiet. Danny didn't think he should try talking to Jim again.

He sighed, eyes wandering back outside. Things seemed to be normal for now. Even though he missed Sam and Tucker a whole lot, he was disappointed to have not made a friend with Jim. _Well_ , Danny thought, _it can't really be helped. We just don't have anything in common. Jim doesn't fight supernatural beings on the daily. He doesn't have to worry about the safety of the whole world. And he probably isn't leading a double life either._


	3. A Perplexing Discovery

Toby walked down the street by himself, on his way back from school. Jim and Claire were having a date night, and Darci had to stay after to mascot for another game. He always told himself that he didn't mind the alone time, but that wasn't entirely true. He still remembered how just earlier that school year, he and Jim did pretty much everything together. They were still best friends, for sure, but it still stung a bit when he thought about how everything had caused them to drift apart.

To be fair, he'd almost lost Jim as a friend altogether, multiple times. They'd been in so many life threatening situations that he'd lost count of them. Jim was even going to move away from Arcadia, before that weird thing happened yesterday. Once Jim realized he could turn back into a human in the sunlight, he'd decided to stay in Arcadia and think things over. Jim said he planned on finishing the school year, at the very least, because it was so close to ending anyway. They all agreed that the decision to move had been too rushed in the first place. Toby was glad that Jim was staying, but was worried that whatever had happened might lead to something more dangerous.

Jim had said that he'd keep an eye out, but that the danger probably passed. Toby couldn't blame how Jim brushed it off so quickly - after all, they'd just defeated Gunmar _and_ Morgana. There wasn't a big baddie _left_ to fight. Toby still worried that something bad was coming, though. I mean, who attacks an entire city for an hour and then just leaves? What was the motivation behind it all? There wasn't even that much damage, or much of anything that was stolen, except for a bunch of cardboard boxes from the mailing company. _That_ was another odd thing: why boxes?

As he was mulling this over, he walked by an alleyway, and it seemed to be growling at him. Toby stopped walking. _Growling alleys are typically a bad sign_ , he thought. He pulled out his magical collapsable hammer, just in case it was dangerous in there, and went in.

"AH!" shouted a voice, further down the alleyway. It sounded like a human voice, so that was a good sign. Unless this was an evil human, or a changeling. Toby shivered, readying his hammer.

"I can't believe I have to deal with all this today! Can't I be a _normal_ teenager who takes a _normal_ walk home to his _normal_ house and his _normal_ parents? First, the ghosts, and now this thing! What are you, Thing?"

Toby squinted, trying to see who was speaking, but the shadows made the alley dark and hard to see in. It sounded like someone who was close to his age. But what was he saying about ghosts?

Suddenly a kid, - the source of the voice - backed up against a wall, coming into view. Toby hid behind a dumpster, worried about revealing the secret of trolls to this strange kid. He looked familiar… was he the guy Toby talked to in the gym? Danny something? He was definitely one of the new kids, that was for sure. Before Toby could think about it much longer, something small leapt at Danny, screaming "Waka Chaka!" Oh, so it was a goblin. A goblin was attacking this random teenager in an alley. Okay.

 _Wait, that's not okay,_ thought Toby, standing up and getting ready to fight. But before he could take a step forward, Danny yelled, "Okay, that's it! I'm going ghost, you - mangy… dog-thing!" Danny straightened out, getting into a fighting stance. Suddenly he was surrounded by glowing light, and his hair changed from black to white. His outfit had changed, too: now he was wearing a black, skin-tight jumpsuit with some kind of D-shaped logo on the front. Toby crouched back down, curious to see where this was going, but stayed ready to jump in if help was needed.

The goblin lunged at Danny again, and Danny seemed to just melt into the wall. The goblin grabbed for Danny in midair, but its fist held nothing, despite being able to reach far enough. Then Danny vanished the rest of the way into the wall, and the goblin charged after him, hitting its head on the wall and falling over. "I _really_ don't have time for this," said Danny, materializing behind the dazed goblin. He pointed at the stumbling creature, and a green, glowing beam shot out of his finger, melting the goblin into a green puddle of goo. "Uh," said Danny, "ew. I hope that stuff is ectoplasm." He picked up his backpack, putting it on, and checked his phone. "Oh, crap! I've gotta get home!" he exclaimed, and flew off into the distance, not having noticed Toby.

 _Well, uh_ , thought Toby, _that sure was weird._

Toby sat on his bed in his room upstairs, nervously waiting for Jim to pick up his phone. He wasn't sure what Jim and Claire were doing tonight for their date, but he thought they might want to know about what he just saw. There were so many questions burning in his mind, he wasn't sure what to do.

"What is it, Toby? Is it an emergency?" Jim's voice sounded a little annoyed. Toby wondered if he had interrupted something, but decided not to ask.

"Yes!" said Toby, in response to Jim's question. Words started spilling out of him faster than he could think them. "I just saw something really weird. One of the new kids, from Casper High - I think his name was Daniel or something - did something really crazy and I'm not sure what to do about it!"

"Woah, woah," said Jim, "how crazy are we talking?"

"Well, uh," said Toby, "I was walking home, and went past this one alleyway, and I saw Danny in there, and I thought 'that's weird, why would he be in an alley?' and so I went in to check and he was getting attacked by a _goblin_ , Jim!"

"Wait, is this the same Danny that's in my Spanish period? Short, black hair, grumpy-looking?"

"Yeah, I think so," said Toby. "But that's not even the weirdest part! I was going to go help him take care of the goblin but before I could do anything he yelled something about ghosts and he _changed_ , Jim! His hair turned white and his outfit changed and he like, _melted into the wall_ -"

"He did what?" Jim interrupted. "He changed? Like, he's a changeling?" Someone else spoke on the other line, farther away from the phone, and Toby knew it must've been Claire, because Jim's voice got farther away, too, and said "One of the new kids might be a changeling… hold on, I'll ask." His voice got close again and he asked, "Did he look like a troll when he changed? Did you throw a Gaggletack at him?"

"No, I didn't," Toby said. It would've been good to test that, but it was too late now. He thought for a second. "He looked mostly like himself, I think. He didn't get taller, or have horns, and his skin looked the same. I think it was just his hair and his outfit. But you should've seen what he did! He disappeared into the wall, like, entirely, and then reappeared back in the alley and then he shot a green laser beam from his finger and the goblin _just melted_ and then he flew away!"

"He-" Jim stuttered. " _What_? Does he have, like, wings? I can't process what you're saying right now, Toby." Claire spoke again, something about movies. "Uh, yeah, okay," replied Jim. "Look," he said to Toby, "it doesn't sound like there's a lot we can do about it right now. Our movie's about to start, so I have to go. When Claire and I get back, we'll talk about this as a group and make a plan on how to move forward with this together. In the meantime, sit tight. Don't try to talk to Danny about it, I'm worried about making things worse before we know more. See you later, Tobes." Jim hung up the phone.

"Bye," said Toby, to the dial tone. He flopped back on his bed and sighed. What was he going to do? Who was this Danny kid?


	4. It Was Probably Nothing

Danny flew through the air, holding his phone to his ear as he waited for the other end to be picked up. He tried to focus on where his new house was; he couldn't put himself on autopilot and fly back to his old house in Amity Park by mistake. There were so many things swirling about in his head, he had trouble thinking at all.

"Danny?" answered Sam. "Dude, where are you? You were supposed to be at home like half an hour ago! Remember?"

"Yeah, sorry, Sam. I'm headed back right now. Something really weird happened and I got delayed. Is Tucker there?"

"Uh, yeah, he is," said Sam uneasily, "but what kind of 'really weird?' Like, ghost weird?"

"I don't think so," said Danny. "It's uh, kind of hard to explain. I'll tell you guys about it when I get to the new house."

"Alright, we'll be here, waiting," sighed Sam, and then she hung up.

Sam didn't sound very happy. It was Danny's fault; he grumbled angrily at himself. There weren't any ghosts here in Arcadia Oaks, and yet he was still late to everything. He'd made plans to hang out at his new house after school with Sam and Tucker. Since they all got out at the same time, they figured they could study together and also talk about their plan on how to keep fighting ghosts when they've all moved away from the ghosts. But now there was something new to discuss as well.

When Danny recognized his new house, he flew down the street a ways, into an alley, and changed back into a human. Then he hightailed it back down the street to his front door, opening it forcefully. "I'm here," he panted.

"Daniel Fenton!" called his mother from somewhere in the house. "Is that you? Where have you been?"

"Uh, sorry," called Danny. "I had to stay after for a bit to, um, collect the work I'm behind on!"

"Well, alright, Danny," his mom yelled back. "As long as you're working on school! Your friends are upstairs in your new room!"

"Thanks!" yelled Danny, and he thumped his way up the stairs. The house had a very similar organization to their old one, which Danny appreciated. It made it feel closer to his real home.

When he opened his door, Sam yelled, "There you are! We've been sitting here forever going over geometry keywords, let's talk about some ghosts!"

Tucker, who was sitting on the floor next to Sam, said, "Well, I think you're just jealous that I got one more right than you." Sam whacked him on the head with her spiral notebook.

Danny slid his backpack off his shoulder and let it drop to the floor. He stepped forward and sat down with his friends, looking around his empty room. "Wow. I really haven't done anything with this place yet, huh? I've pretty much just got my bed set up there, and not much else…" His focus rested back on his friends, who were both glaring at him. "Oh, right! The thing that happened today! Well, it was really weird. I was at the school, and they had this welcoming ceremony thing, which was boring, and then I was walking to my first class of the day, and I heard something in the vents up in the ceiling."

"Like a rat?" asked Tucker.

"I thought it was an animal at first, but the longer I listened to it, the more I realized it was… talking. Or something." 

"So it was a ghost," guessed Sam, unimpressed.

"I'm getting to that part. I went on to my classes, but I couldn't stop thinking about the ghost attack, and every class was pretty much as boring as it was at Casper, anyway. And then it suddenly hit me: what if a ghost was in the vents of the school, getting ready for some plot? And all the Arcadia people are so defenseless against ghosts, they don't even think they exist. So after school ended I went to-"

"You went to check it out," Sam and Tucker finished in unison.

Danny paused. "Uh, yeah. I phased into the vents, and I looked around. After about ten minutes of not finding anything, I was about to give up, but then I heard it again: the rustling. The grunting. And as I turned the corner, I saw it: this tiny, green creature thing with glowing yellow eyes. And it said 'Waka Chaka…'"

"Geez, Danny," interrupted Sam. "What is this, a campfire story? You're gonna spook us with your discovery of a ghost?"

"Like we don't already know most of the recurring ones," commented Tucker.

"Guys, that's just it! It wasn't a ghost! At all! It had a physical form, and everything. It was maybe the size of a cat, and it had legs that stuck out everywhere like a frog, kind of. When I realized that it wasn't a ghost, I decided to leave the vents and look into it later, but I kind of… ended up bumping it in the face, which made it really mad."

"So you left, right?" asked Tucker. "You didn't do anything else. You didn't touch the whatever-it-was and… oh no. You don't have it in your backpack, do you?" His eyes tracked over to the purple bag on the floor.

"No, I don't have it in my bag! Will you just let me tell you what happened?" Danny sighed. "I left, yeah, but guys, it followed me on my way home. It wouldn't leave me alone, and I ended up luring it into an alley and going ghost to take care of it."

"Take care of it?" Sam asked, eyebrows skewed.

"Yeah, I uh…" Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "I shot it with a small ecto blast, and it kind of… melted."

"It melted?" shouted Sam.

"You mean you killed something and you don't even know what it was?" Tucker's face filled with fear. "What if there's some kind of cat-frog society that lives underground and now that you've killed one there's a dark, moody cat-frog detective out there looking for his best friend's murderer?"

"Tuck, there's not a super secret underground 'cat-frog' society," said Danny. "I didn't even know that I was gonna kill it with the blast, I really only gave it a zap. Guess I'm just used to fighting ghosts…" He trailed off into thought. Was it really dead…?

"Okay," said Sam. "We shouldn't freak out about this until we know what it is. I'll check it out online." She reached into her bookbag and pulled out her laptop.

"I'm part of some group chats that talk about the paranormal," mentioned Tucker. "I'll ask them if they know anything." He took out his phone and started typing away.

"While you two are at that, I'd better start on some homework," Danny mumbled, and pulled his backpack over to himself. He got out his papers and got to work.

About twenty minutes later, Sam piped up. "Hey, I found this weird blog. I'm not sure if it'll have the exact thing we're looking for, but check it out. It's called 'The Paranormal and Supernatural Beings of Arcadia Oaks.' The author says they're posting all their research on the blog to make it harder to take the info away from them…"

"What kind of stuff is on there?" asked Tucker.

"Well," said Sam, "it looks like there's three main tabs. One says 'Trolls,' one says 'Aliens,' and the last says 'Wizards.' There's almost nothing on the Wizards tab, and the Aliens one looks a little hokey, but there's a ton of stuff on the Trolls tab. Maybe you'll find what you saw there, Danny." She turned the laptop to face him.

"I dunno…" said Tucker. "Trolls? Like in the movie? With all the singing?"

"No," sighed Sam, as Danny started scrolling through the pictures on the blog. "Like ancient European folklore. Skin made of stone, lives under a bridge, eats people. That stuff. Fairies, changelings, gob-"

"GOBLIN!" yelled Danny, making Sam and Tucker jump. He'd stopped scrolling on an image. It was a hand-drawn depiction, but he was still at least 80% sure it was a match. "This is the thing I saw." It looked like a couple of green grapes stacked on top of each other, with a permanent frown combatting its disproportionately large sideburns. The goblin's legs in this drawing looked even more spindly than the one he encountered, but there was one detail that really sold it for him: the eyes.

Sam took the laptop back. "Hm, okay. It says here… Goblins usually travel in hordes, with one as their leader. They're harmless individually, but when they come together for an attack, become quite dangerous. Never, ever kill a goblin if you can help it -" Tucker and Sam tossed glares at Danny "- at the risk of enraging the entire horde. Goblins will seek vengeance for their own kind, no matter the personal cost." Sam sat back as they all chewed on this information.

"So…" Tucker paused. "Goblins are after Danny. If that was a goblin. I mean, we don't know for sure, right?"

"Before we jump to any conclusions," Sam said slowly, "we need to think about this logically. What are the facts?"

"Well, we know I was attacked by something that we think may be a goblin," started Danny. "We know that I killed it by accident, and that entire hordes seek revenge for one murdered goblin guy. What else is there?"

"Hmm," said Sam and Tucker, simultaneously. They didn't say much else.

"Great," said Danny, leaning back on his elbows. "We're not even sure if they're coming for me. Maybe I'm perfectly safe. Maybe I don't have to worr-" He was cut off by something slamming him in his left shoulder, taking him with them through the floor as he was forcefully phased through the house. "Oh, great," Danny muttered, hurtling through the air. "I wonder who this could be. With his head spinning, and an arm full of pins and needles, he shook himself into battle mode.

He went ghost, wrestling free from the clutches of whoever was holding him, and took his own flight course after the assailant, until they both slowed to a stop somewhere above the suburbs. The figure floating in front of Danny as the sun began to set was a ghost this time. His skin glowed a steely blue, his hair curved upwards in two spikes like horns, and his white jumpsuit and cape made him unmistakable. "Vlad Plasmius," muttered Danny.

"In the flesh, my boy!" cackled Vlad. "It's good to see you, Daniel. I'm sure we have a lot to catch up on. But first, let's take this fight… to the canal." He flashed a fanged grin, turning and gliding into the distance.

Danny chased after him, but wondered why Vlad wanted to go to the canal. It couldn't be backup, because whoever he worked with always ended up hating him after a single day of collaboration. No one would agree to help him. So what else could it be? There's no way to know, thought Danny, unless I just come along for the ride.


	5. Nightmares

Jim walked out of the movie theater, thinking anxious thoughts as he held Claire's hand. He thought about what Toby had told him - he'd thought about it the entire movie, in fact - and wondered what exactly it meant for the trollhunting team. If Danny was a changeling, it could pose some serious danger to the rest of them, depending on Danny's motives, at least. And what if they were wrong? What if Toby was overreacting to something that he was embellishing? It wouldn't be the first false start, that's for sure. But they couldn't know what their next step should be without -

"Hey! Earth to Trollhunter!" Claire's voice shot through his musings, grounding him back to the sidewalk in front of the theater. "You ready to go? The sun's starting to set."

Jim looked up at the sky. She was right; he'd turn back into a troll soon. "Sorry, sorry," he said. "I was just thinking." They started walking down the street, on their way home.

"Yeah? What _did_ you think of the movie?"

Jim ruffled his hair and looked anywhere except at Claire. "Uhhhh…"

"Oh geez, you weren't even paying attention to the movie, were you?" she exclaimed. "What exactly did Toby say in that phone call that's got you so frazzled?"

"It's - sorry, let's talk about that later." Jim grabbed Claire's hand. "Sorry for letting Trollhunter stuff get in the way of our date. I really enjoy spending time with you, you know. I just-"

"I know. You get worried. It's okay to be worried, Jim. Worry makes sure we keep ourselves safe. Right now, I'm a little worried that you won't talk about what's on your mind. Are you sure everything's okay, Jim?"

"I'm not, but I should look into it further before I make it too big of a deal and have it turn into nothing…" He looked at Claire, who was glaring at him.

"James Lake Jr!" she yelled, punching him in the arm. "Don't keep secrets from me. It's not good for our health."

" _Our_ health?" asked Jim, raising an eyebrow.

" _Either of our healths!_ Not yours or mine!" She took a deep breath. "Look, let's just talk about it on the walk home, okay? I can help you with this. You're not alone. After all, it's Trollhunters. Plural."

Jim sighed. "Okay. Toby called me saying he saw one of the new Casper kids - Danny, I think is who he said it was, you probably haven't met him yet - in an alley."

"Okay. That's like, a little weird, but not _troll_ weird."

"Toby said he saw a goblin attacking Danny, Claire."

"...Oh."

"He said that he was going to help, but that Danny yelled something about ghosts - and that he changed his appearance instantly. Toby said that, uh, his hair and clothes changed, but not much else. And… uh…"

"And?" asked Claire.

"He said he saw him... melt into a wall, and 'magically reappear,' and then he zapped the goblin with a ray from his finger and made the goblin just melt. And then Toby said something about Danny just flying away…"

Claire had a blank expression on her face. "That… sounds very strange. I think that you're right, we should talk to Toby about this more in-depth. But let's do that tomorrow, okay? I have to study tonight; I'm really behind because I've been making Trollhunter business a priority, and I can't let my grades slip or else I won't be able to do any Trollhunting at all." They'd reached Claire's house, and she waved goodbye as she walked up the driveway to her front door.

Jim huffed a sigh. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Okay, then, we'll talk tomorrow during lunch. Goodnight!" He waved back, and when she was safely inside, continued walking home.

Toby's story did sound a little outrageous, even for the world that Jim lived in. But he had to consider every angle he could. A while back, He'd dismissed the possibility of Gunmar, the most evil troll of all, breaking free from the Darklands, where he'd been trapped for a thousand years. And that dismission had lead to them being unprepared for his attacks. Jim had promised himself he'd be more careful, and that was what he was doing, wasn't it?

He unlocked his front door and thumped up the stairs to his room, falling backwards onto his bed. He felt guilty that Claire acted like she had to take care of him. He knew she just wanted to help, but sometimes it felt like she was throwing herself in danger. She didn't have the amulet, or a troll half, or even her staff to protect herself with anymore. It was _Jim's_ job to protect… but what if the people closest to him got hurt? He would be a failure, both to himself and as the Trollhunter. And what if Danny really was bad? What if Toby was right? What could they possibly do to counteract anything Danny might do? On the other hand, he might be a changeling trying to lead a regular life. Not everyone in the world was evil. But it was hard to know for sure.

Jim stared at the ceiling, eyes feeling droopy. He was thinking himself in circles, going over things he'd thought about three dozen times before. There was too much going on… he needed a rest. It was still light outside, but he was exhausted. He closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind. Besides, he'd be woken up again when the sun finished setting anyway.

Jim opened his eyes. Everything around him was pitch black. He was wearing the armor, but its glow didn't help him see anything. He tried to move but he felt confined. An unknown weight pressed down on him, slowing his movements, and his back was pressed up against something cold and smooth. He couldn't breathe; he worried his lungs had been taken away this time. Maybe the transition to troll had made a fatal error, maybe he was about to die… he slid his hand along the hard surface he was pressed up against, and it curved in a strange way, then straightened out again. He followed it further, as it moved out in front of him, and his fingers found the edge, suddenly feeling cold. He searched with his other hand and found that the other side curved the same way. Once he had both hands on the edges, he pulled himself forward, and suddenly his head broke the surface of the murky water, despite it fighting against him all it could to keep him underneath. Jim was sitting in his bathtub, dripping with black water. Gasping for air, he examined his hands. "I'm a troll," said Jim. He looked up to see the ancient wizard Merlin coming into the bathroom, and he pointed and laughed at Jim, shouting, "HA! I made you a troll! Can't do anything about it now!" Suddenly everyone was there, looking at him strangely. His mother ran out of the bathroom, yelling something about how he had been changed from the son she knew, and Claire and Toby turned away. "We're sorry, Jim," said Claire, to the wall. "We didn't know." Jim opened his mouth to protest, but suddenly his head exploded in pain. Just above his forehead, he felt immense pressure, and the world warped like glass until it cracked. He screamed as the world turned upside down and his brain gave up processing what he was seeing in order to go through the pain. He tried desperately to climb out of the tub, to get an ice pack for his headache - and rolled out of bed onto the floor.

"Crap," said Jim, opening his eyes for real. "What a nightmare." He felt his head, which still throbbed in pain, and confirmed it: two rough curved horns poked out of his hair, the same place they always showed up. Jim sat up, still on the floor, and realized he'd been sweating. Footsteps came up the stairs and down the hallway, and his mom stood in the doorway. His real mom.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "I heard a thump."

"Yeah, mom. It's just… I'm not human anymore. It just really hit me. I'm… part troll."

"Oh, honey," she said, kneeling down to hug Jim. "No matter what you are… you're still my son. I still love you. And you're still saving the world, one Trollhunter's call at a time. Don't forget that no matter what you are, you can do great things. You've _already done_ great things, Jim."

Jim rubbed his cheek. "Yeah, I know. Thanks, mom."

Mrs. Lake rose to her feet. "No problem, honey. Now come downstairs and have some dinner. I've got some lovely tin cans for you to munch on."


	6. The Canal Where It Happened

It was dark. The sun had just passed the horizon, and the street lights were on, but it wasn't past her curfew quite yet. Claire stood underneath the bridge over the canal, thinking about everything that had happened the past few months. She knelt down, touching the cool concrete. Trollmarket used to be down there. Well, technically, all the buildings and everything were still down there. But the Heartstone, the lifeforce and heart of Trollmarket, had been consumed by the most powerful and evil troll of all: Gunmar. Born from darkness, he'd lived only to try and gain rule over the world of humans, and consumed every Heartstone he could find. Claire had worked with Toby, Jim, Blinky and Argh - and the rest of the good trolls, with a handful of trustworthy humans as well - to help defeat Gunmar, but it cost almost everything. It had cost Claire her trust in herself, it had cost Trollmarket, and it had cost them all the belief that they could have a normal life.

It had cost Jim his humanity. In order to step up to his full potential as Trollhunter, the ancient relic of a man Merlin had forced Jim to become a troll. Merlin didn't plan for it, but his spell ended up only making Jim half troll; he turned human in the daylight, and became a troll at night. Claire still loved him the same, but something had changed inside Jim since then, an anger festered deep inside him that didn't used to be there. She could see his conflict when she looked into his eyes, she could feel how tired he was when she held his hand. She was scared to imagine how it made him feel, because just thinking about it made her ache. The least she could do is try and provide some relief for that knot buried inside him, and she was always trying, but still worried it wasn't enough.

She came out to the canal sometimes for a break from everything; she liked to occasionally pretend that things were still the way they were when she first found out her brother had been switched with a changeling, where the worst she'd gone up against was goblins. She still appreciated how all of her experiences had toughened her up, understood what was at stake, and accepted her responsibilities. But sometimes it weighed on her shoulders, and she felt she might drown without a bit of air.

She was thinking about Jim's role in all this, but she didn't blame him for any of it. She had chosen to live in this world. And she was going to -

"Where are you going, Plasmius?" shouted a voice, echoing off of the flat sides of the canal. Claire jerked herself to her feet, worried she might have to fight. _Who's Plasmius?_ she wondered. She tried to stay in the shadows, in case something bad was coming.

Two glowing shapes shot through the air over the canal, and then stopped, hovering. One was bigger and brighter than the other one. They were too far away from Claire for her to get a very good look, but… The way that they moved, they looked almost like people, but people didn't fly. Not unless that person was Morgana, that is.

And then the bigger one spoke. "Little Badger," he said, voice low and smooth, "I am going nowhere."

"Oh yeah?" yelled the other, smaller one. He sounded like he could be a teenager. "Well then, what the heck are you doing here? In Arcadia Oaks? Shouldn't you be busy running Amity Park, _Mister Mayor_?" Claire decided to creep up the side of the canal and onto the bridge, to get a better view but still with some cover from being seen. She crouched back down and started creeping very slowly up the slanted concrete wall, continuing to listen.

"I'm resigning my position as mayor tomorrow," said the brighter figure. "There's something much more interesting here in Arcadia Oaks, and I intend to find it."

"Something more interesting? You mean the Ghost Portal?" Claire wondered what that meant. _What exactly is a Ghost Portal?_ Was it a ghost transporting device? Did you use it to trap ghosts, like a dream catcher? The word "portal" implied that it might lead somewhere else, but where could that be…? Claire reached the top of the reservoir and turned to creep onto the bridge, hiding behind one of the pillars that supported the railing. Peeking around, she saw that the two figures were still floating in midair.

"No, Daniel," said the bigger figure. "When I heard of your district's merging with the one here in Arcadia, I did some research in the area, and I found some most interesting historical evidence. Oh, and I'm _so sorry_ for what happened to your school, by the way. How unfortunate that your friends had to attend a different school than you…"

That last bit sounded utterly drenched in sarcasm. She could tell this guy was a jerk, and she'd only heard him speak for thirty seconds.

"What kind of _historical evidence_?" asked the one apparently named Daniel, through gritted teeth. Claire could hear the anger behind his words.

"Well, nothing's quite so definite at the moment," said the bigger one, "but there is some strong evidence to suggest that _trolls_ live under this very town." Claire sucked in air, trying not to make a sound. The fact that this floating man knew about trolls meant he was most likely dangerous _._ She took out her phone to warn Jim, and the floating man kept on talking. "They have the biggest source of energy ever recorded by anyone, hidden in their Trollmarket, and I intend to find it and take it for my own."

" _Trolls_? Ha, they don't exist," said Daniel, unconvincingly. "Uh, but it's a lot of work for one person to search the whole of Arcadia Oaks by themselves, don't ya think?"

"Yes, normally," said the man. "This town has a lot more to it than it seems. Fortunately, I've made a deal with all our little friends that were so conveniently freed from the Ghost Zone by your idiot father the other day. I told them I could help them stay out of the Ghost Zone for good with that power, and grant their deepest wishes. I have no idea what it'll _actually_ do... but I didn't tell them that." He shrugged, a smug smile on his face, and Daniel remained silent. "There's also one more thing I've heard about," continued the man. "The trolls have some kind of assigned hero that holds the mantle of Trollhunter, who gets a powerful set of armor and a sword. Every Trollhunter has their history recorded in troll lore forever. If I get the power of the Trollhunter, I would become immortalized in history! I'd be a _king among men!_ " He cackled again, louder this time. "I intend to find and take that magical amulet, even if I have to do it by force."

Claire almost yelped again. The power of the Trollhunter was bestowed into a magical amulet, and it could only be transferred between heroes if the current owner died. And the current owner was Jim. He was in danger… though exactly how much, Claire was unsure of. She'd never heard of or seen this floating man before, and still couldn't see him well enough to be able to identify him later. It was impossible to tell how serious he was, or if he was likely to succeed. Whoever the "little friends" Plasmius was talking about, they were probably bad, but _how_ bad?

"You know what, Plasmius?" said Daniel. "You may have decades of experience under your belt, but in the center of it all, you're still just a crazy old Fruit Loop."

"I'll be an all-powerful Fruit Loop soon enough!" yelled Plasmius. He swiped his hand in front of him, and a wave of pink energy surged across the canal. Claire ducked behind the pillar to avoid getting touched by it. What would happen if she _did_ touch it? What kind of energy was it? How did this Plasmius just shoot out a bunch of it so effortlessly? _Focus, Claire,_ she told herself. _You should get to safety without being seen, and then you can evaluate this all you want._ She poked her head back up to see where the two floating guys were, but she couldn't see either of them. Panicked, she hurriedly looked around the canal for a sign of them. But she couldn't see Daniel, or Plasmius…

"Is that the best you can do?" shouted Daniel suddenly, from above her. She looked up and saw him floating in midair, as if he magically materialized there. He was about fifty feet in the air, and almost directly over her head, just a bit to the left. Now that he was closer, she could see him more clearly: his hair was white, and he wore a black spandex bodysuit thing with white gloves and boots. Was it called a jumpsuit? She saw him turn his head as he looked around for Plasmius, and his eyes glowed bright green. She jumped, worried he'd seen her, and began to slowly crawl her way back off of the bridge. But Daniel seemed more interested in apprehending Plasmius. "Show yourself, Vlad!" he yelled. Vlad? This Plasmius guy must have more than one name.

"Call me crazy all you like," said Plasmius as he materialized in front of Daniel. "But you won't think I'm so crazy when I'm the first half ghost Trollhunter!" Half ghost? What was he talking about _now_? Claire turned around to see what Plasmius looked like. He was wearing an all white suit, and a fancy cape with a red lining. When he smiled, he showed his fangs, and his eyes glowed red. He looked downright evil.

"You won't be able to stop me this time, Daniel," said Plasmius, and he split into five different versions of himself. Claire froze, worried one of the duplicates, with their increased number of eyes, would catch her movement.

"Yes, I will," said Daniel, backing up. "I always stop you. This time won't be any different."

"Oh, really?" said Plasmius. "Stop this." All five Plasmiuses lunged forward at once, converging on Daniel… But they just knocked into each other. Confused, they all backed up in the air, but Daniel wasn't there. He was gone.

"I'm tired of you, Vlad," said Daniel's disembodied voice. "See you next time. And I will stop you. Just like always." Plasmius huffed at that. The five floating versions of himself merged together, back into just one Plasmius, and he lowered to the ground.

"Ugh," he groaned. "The stupid child can't see what's coming. I'll give him another chance, but if he fails again, he'll be getting the same treatment as his father." He took a deep breath, and there was suddenly a flash of light. When it went away, a rich-looking old man stood where the glowing figure had been. He pat down his white, ponytailed hair, and straightened his black suit and pocket square. "Vlad Masters is no longer the mayor of Amity Park. Soon, I'll be worshipped by future generations. Like a hero." He turned and walked off the bridge, into the night.

Claire stayed where she was crouched for a few more minutes. There was a lot of information to process here. What just happened? Who was this Daniel kid? Who was Vlad Masters? Was Plasmius a different person? Was he as powerful as he said he was? He had a lot of strange powers, from what Claire could see. He was after Jim's amulet - oh, crap! Claire remembered that she should be telling someone about all this instead of just sitting in the ground thinking about it. She stood up, and ran across the bridge in the opposite direction that Vlad left in, and took out her phone.

"Hi, Toby. Listen, you're not going to believe what I just saw."


	7. We Gotta Dig A Little Deeper

Danny paced his room, back and forth, thinking. His laptop was open on his desk, and he was in a video chat with Sam and Tucker, who had gone home when Danny was pulled through the floor and disappeared. Danny ran his hands through his hair, stressed out as ever.

Sam spoke up first, voice tinny in the laptop speakers. "So… what this means is that the _troll thing_ holds more weight. You say you saw a goblin…. You really might have."

"Uh, Sam, that might be the _least_ of our problems," said Tucker. "If Vlad is here in Arcadia, we'll have more to worry about than _goblins_."

Danny stopped pacing, instead standing still as a statue, and then spoke. "Trollmarket. He's looking for something called Trollmarket. He said… that trolls live under Arcadia, and that there's a big source of energy down there. And he mentioned a hunter of some kind. I have no idea what it means." He thought about what to do about that. "Sam, print out everything that website has to say about trolls and stuff, it might be useful. We'll review it tomorrow after school. But if you find anything really important before then, message it to me and Tuck. We're kind of running against a clock we can't see, here."

"Hm," mused Tucker. "How _do_ you fight trolls?"

"Carefully," snapped Sam. "If there's suddenly a whole horde of stone-creatures on Vlad's side… we might need to get help. Someone in Arcadia might know something about it. I mean, a whole underground troll society? It's gotta have been found by someone."

"Yeah," agreed Tucker and Danny, voices wavering to a higher pitch than normal. They were not convinced.

"Whatever. I have to go print a ton of papers on trolls and goblins. Later." With that, Sam logged off.

"I'm gonna go, too," said Tucker. "Gotta get my beauty sleep." With a beep, both their faces were gone.

Danny sighed, slumping to sit on his bed. He was in deeper over his head than normal. Not only did he have a new school and a ton of mysteriously disappeared ghosts to deal with - but Vlad was back in town - or rather, he was visiting - and he was planning to make waves, as always. The way he talked, he planned to get the trolls on his side. A whole army at his disposal, made of stone, ready to fight. Danny only knew how to fight ghosts. What kind of challenge was he going to face?

Danny flopped backwards, spreading his arms on his bedspread. He growled in frustration. Moving to Arcadia was a mistake.

* * *

Claire paced around as she talked, Toby and Jim looking on with increasing worry on their faces. They were in Jim's basement, and Blinky and Argh had come to the emergency meeting Claire called.

"It just doesn't make any sense," Claire said. "I mean, I don't know who those flying guys could have been! I've honestly never seen anything like it before. But one was very interested in Trollmarket, especially the Amulet."

Jim grimaced, fangs glinting in the moonlight coming through the window. "Well, that's not good. I thought we got rid of all the bad guys. Who could be left to come for us? For the amulet? Blinky, do you have any ideas?" He turned to face the four armed, six eyed troll.

Blinky shook his head. "I checked through the books we have left after Gunmar ravaged my library, but that's not many to work with. I personally do not recall anything about _flying vampire men_ in troll history. Had I more time, I might be able to find something." He sighed with exhaustion. "My mind is scattered, Master Jim, with the task of managing the rest of the trolls. Losing Trollmarket was hard on us all, and we need to find a replacement heartstone soon… We aren't safe in the streets, and everyone knows it. It's taking nearly all of my energy to keep them civilized."

The three kids nodded. "We understand, Blinky," said Jim. "Thanks for trying. As soon as we can identify this threat, we'll start looking. I just don't want to leave in the middle of a possibly world-ending crisis."

"GHOSTS!" Toby yelled, out of the blue.

"Pardon?" asked Blinky.

"You guys might not be aware," said Toby, "but Casper High, even just _Amity Park_ , has these rumors going around that it's _haunted_. I know it sounds like a bunch of hokey stuff, but even the most popular news channels and ghost theory busters have come out of that town with some scary ghost story of their own. It's a hotspot for paranormal investigations-" Toby typed something up on his phone, "-and coincidentally, the top ghost scientists on the planet were based in Amity Park, until just recently… when they moved to Arcadia Oaks, for a reason the online community can't make out. But- check it out." Toby turned his phone to show Claire and Jim what he'd been pulling up - a wikipedia page.

"Jack and Madeline Fenton?" read Claire.

"Check out the known relatives section," said Toby, scrolling down with a swipe.

"Known relatives," read Jim, "Jazmine Fenton, 16 year old daughter, and … Daniel Fenton. 14 year old son."

"Sound familiar?" asked Toby, grinning a mouthful of braces.

"Oh, _Danny_! He's in my spanish class!" realized Jim.

"Yeah, and I saw him _change what he looked like at will and melt a goblin_ , 's probably the Daniel that the weird vampire guy was talking to that Claire saw, or something. He _definitely_ knows more than he's saying, that's for sure." Toby put his phone away. "We've got to think up a game plan. We shouldn't, like, scare him off."

"Hm," said Claire, thinking. "He seems pretty grumpy at school. I mean, you guys talked to him more than I have, but his resting expression is definitely _angry and annoyed_." She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "He might just feel like he can't trust us. Jim, maybe we could… offer a secret for a secret. Like a trade."

"You mean tell Danny that Jim's the Trollhunter? Just out of the blue? Like, 'Hi, I'm a magical knight who turns into a troll when the sun goes down. That's normal! Please talk to me!'" Toby sighed.

"We don't even know if he really is half ghost or anything! What if he, I dunno, thinks he's normal somehow, and I just end up wigging him out more?" Jim was becoming exasperated. He took a few deep breaths, snorting the first one slightly. "Look. That sounds kind of reckless to just… up and do."

"Well, do you have any other plans?" jabbed Claire. "It's not like we're swimming in options. Or time! I know it's stressful but we have to make a decision. I say we ask him about it. The worst he can say is that he doesn't know what we're talking about."

Toby frumped silently, frustrated but without alternatives. Jim growled. "Alright. Fine. We'll ask him. But you follow _my_ lead, okay? It's me they're after, and it's my job to protect the trolls. The vampire guy, Vlad or whatever, he might not know the Heartstone is dead now, but he will find out. Plus, we don't know how much of a wild card Danny really is, and that's dangerous. We have to tread carefully."

"While you kids go to school and hash all this out," interjected Blinky, "is there anything you need from us? I know our resources are limited, but-"

Jim rested his hand on Blinky's shoulder. "Just keep an eye out. If you see anything suspicious, call me. If nothing happens, don't worry about anything. We'll take care of this mess. You take care of Makeshift Trollmarket."

Blinky smiled, filled with admiration for the Trollhunter. "Answer every call," he mumbled. "Thank you, Master Jim." A tear bothered his eye, but he brushed it away, becoming serious. "Now, I do think it is past your bedtime."


End file.
